“I'm driving down the street when someone catches my eye. I turn the van around and pass by for another look. I pull over and park. Leaving the camera in the van. I approach. Always feeling a little bit like a traveling sales man. I ask ‘May I take your picture?’
‘Why me?’ They invariably ask.
If only I had a good answer, I'll say they are ‘interesting’ or ‘unique’, but that doesn't really explain anything. My attraction is as simple as complicated as sexual attraction. I'm not sure such things can be explained.
‘Just wait by those trees.’ I say, while I go to my van and gather my equipment. I returned and set up the camera. The subject waits. I put my head under the dark cloth and focus on the eyelashes. The subject waits. I move the camera two feet to the left. The subject waits. Five minutes have passed and I still haven't take a picture.
But this is the picture. The subject is in their space and I am in mine.
It is remarkable how little a photographic portrait reveals about the subject. You see their eyelashes but don't know their dreams. You see the trees but don't know their world. When I take a picture of a person, I'm not so much capturing that person as much as I am the space between us.”
— Alec Soth
‘Why me?’ They invariably ask.
If only I had a good answer, I'll say they are ‘interesting’ or ‘unique’, but that doesn't really explain anything. My attraction is as simple as complicated as sexual attraction. I'm not sure such things can be explained.
‘Just wait by those trees.’ I say, while I go to my van and gather my equipment. I returned and set up the camera. The subject waits. I put my head under the dark cloth and focus on the eyelashes. The subject waits. I move the camera two feet to the left. The subject waits. Five minutes have passed and I still haven't take a picture.
But this is the picture. The subject is in their space and I am in mine.
It is remarkable how little a photographic portrait reveals about the subject. You see their eyelashes but don't know their dreams. You see the trees but don't know their world. When I take a picture of a person, I'm not so much capturing that person as much as I am the space between us.”
— Alec Soth
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